Welcome to our October newsletter about the Hillingdon Hospital redevelopment.

In this issue of our newsletter we will cover:

• News from this month
• Update on our feedback survey
• Digital buddies
• Our public webinars
• How we are planning to finance the project
• Sharing our plans with you

Government support: On 2 October 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care renewed their commitment to supporting the building of 40 new hospitals, of which, Hillingdon is one. 

Business case progress: The first stage of our business case, the Strategic Outline Case (SOC), was approved in principle at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England/Improvement Joint Investment Committee at the start of October. Based on the assessment of options to date, this identifies a new hospital build on the Hillingdon Hospital site as the preferred way forward. The approval from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England/Improvement is subject to further work at the next stage, the Outline Business Case (OBC), particularly in relation to making sure the hospital is the right size for future needs, that it is affordable, that the procurement strategy delivers value for money and that the plan makes full use of modern methods of constructions and reduces our carbon footprint.

Public webinar: We held our first public webinar this month and had a broad range of questions from those attending. More information on that later in this newsletter.
 
Community engagement:  We are challenged by the restrictions of Covid-19 with regard to the engagement we can undertake. Whilst there is a lot we can do online, we are very aware that not everyone is able to, or wishes to, engage in that way. We have been working hard to reach out across the community in partnership with community groups, residents associations, Healthwatch, the Council and others. If you have any suggestions or opportunities, we are always interested to hear them!

Over the last month, we have started to hear more specific questions from people about the hospital services they use regularly, concerns about parking, finance and access, as well as seeking more detail on the plans. 

All feedback is sent to the relevant teams to review and to help shape the development of our plans. We will also use this newsletter to address the issues being raised.

The current survey is focusing on car parking and transport at the hospital. We know it is a topic that concerns many people and is an important aspect to get right. Each month we will change the topic of the survey so do check back and give us your views on a regular basis.

As part of the redevelopment, we are looking at how we can use technology to improve patient experience. However, we know that not everyone is comfortable with using new technology or may not have access to the internet.   

We want to speak to people who don't regularly use the internet to hear their views, concerns and suggestions.  With Covid restrictions, this is harder than usual so we are looking for your help to be a digital buddy.

If you are living with or in a support bubble with someone who is unable to access the internet themselves or isn't comfortable using technology, we'd like to hear from you. We want to set up a video call with you when you can be sitting together so we can talk to both of you about using technology to access healthcare services.   

If you would be interested, please email thh-redevelopment@thh.nhs.uk and put 'Digital buddy' in the subject line.

Many of you have asked whether the project will be financed through PFI*. We can confirm that it will not be funded this way.

Hillingdon Hospital is one of the 40 hospitals under the Governments Hospital Improvement Programme (HIP) and will be publicly funded. On 2 October 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed funding of the 40 planned new hospitals, of which, Hillingdon is one. 

We are currently working through our business case, developing our plans in line with feedback from our engagement, which will provide an estimated capital cost. We then apply for funding from HM Treasury.

(*PFI - Public Finance Initiative - where the private sector provides funding for a project which is then repaid over time. This is NOT being used for this redevelopment)

Our first monthly public webinar was held on 15 October 2020 and we are pleased that so many of your found it useful. If you weren't able to join us, you can watch a recording online (click on the link below to access).

A couple of people contacted us with technical difficulties when accessing the webinar. We will add more detailed instructions and also work with our technical team to address any issues.

The next public webinar is on Wednesday 11 November 2020 at 7.30pm. If you have questions you want to ask in advance or suggestions on what we should cover in the webinar, please do get in touch via thh-redevelopment@thh.nhs.uk 

Over the coming months, we will be sharing our thinking about many aspects of the planning to seek your views. We will update you through the newsletter, webinars, social media and direct mail to ensure as many of you as possible can get involved and help shape our plans.